I WATCHED 25 PEOPLE DIE
- WITNESS ANNE JOHNSON YESTERDAY
TERRIFIED youngsters trapped inside Grenfell Tower scrawled “help” on the blackened windows of their homes.
Anne Johnson said she saw at least 25 tragic residents, including children, “die before her eyes” as the high-rise block was engulfed by the inferno.
She told how the youngsters begged to be saved from the upper floors as fierce flames edged towards their homes.
Anne, who was awakened by screams, said: “I could see kids on top of the building, about six kids all together.
“They were crying for help and writing help on the windows. Two kids on the right hand side on the corner are screaming.
“Nobody could get to them. Nobody could help these children on the very, very top.
“I saw the whole building turn black with smoke with the children still inside, and then you never heard those children again.
“I saw women and men flashing phones, flashing
everything their hands, T-shirts, anything to say, ‘We’re here’.
“I must have seen over 25 people dying in front of my own eyes.”
A resident trapped on the top floor of the 24-storey tower rang a relative to say he could no longer stand on the floor because it was too hot.
Friends said he was “screaming” down the phone and has not been heard from since the blaze.
The first confirmed victim of the tragedy early on Wednesday morning was refugee Mohammed al-Haj Ali, 23. He had fled Daraa, Syria, for the UK and was studying for a degree in engineering.
Mohammed was separated from his brother Omar, 25, as they tried to escape from the 14th floor. Relatives said Omar made it out and is recovering in hospital.
But Mohammed was forced to turn back because of the smoke and spent two terrifying hours inside his flat before dying. In a heartbreaking final
message to his family in Syria he wrote: “The fire is here now, goodbye.”
His friend Marjorie Bahhaj said: “After all he has been through, a place of safety leads to his death.
“From a government that starts war with its citizens to our government, who neglect building regulations. When will all leaders care for their citizens? It feels we as British let him down. He was supposed to be safe with us.” A family of six are still missing. Teaching assistant
Nadia Choucair, 29, her husband Bassem, 38, and children Mierna, 13, Zaynab, 10, and Fatima, three, have not been seen.
Nadia’s Lebanese mother Sirra is also believed to have died inside their flat. Nadia’s sister Sawsan Choucair said she spoke to her family on the phone during the blaze.
She said: “They were screaming, shouting, that’s all I could hear in the background.
“They were screaming. I was shouting, ‘Get out,
try and find an exit or something.’” Nura Jamal, her husband Hashim Kedir and their children Yahya, 13, Firdaws, 11, and Yaqub, six, are also missing.
The frightened mother rang a friend and told her: “Forgive me, the fire is here. I’m dying. We are going, pray for us.”
Four members of a family of five who were feared dead were found alive. Abdul Aziz el-Wahabi, 52, his wife Faouzia, 42, along with children Yasin, 21, Nurhouda, 15, and Mehdi, eight, all lived on the 21st floor. Relatives found four of them in hospital, but little Mehdi remains missing.
Abdul’s brother-in-law Ahmed Chellat said: “To get them out from the 21st floor, the emergency services are amazing.”
Another victim is feared to be Lucas James, 12, who lived on the eighth floor but was staying with a friend in another flat.
His 16-year-old sister, who did not want to be named, said: “He didn’t get out. We can’t find him.”